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{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=October 2018}}
{{more citations needed|date=August 2015}}
[[File:George_Oxenden.jpg|thumb|Sir George Oxenden]]
'''Sir George Oxenden''' (1620–1669) was the first [[governor]] of the [[Bombay Presidency]] during the early rule of the [[British East India Company]] in [[India]].

==Early life==
He was the third son of Sir James Oxenden of [[Dene, Kent]], knight, and of Margaret, daughter of Thomas Nevinson of [[Eastry]], Kent, and was baptised at Wingham on 6 April 1620. He spent his youth in India, and on 24 November 1661 was knighted at [[Whitehall Palace]]. At the time the London [[East India Company]] had a new charter from Charles II, but the king's marriage to [[Catherine of Braganza]] involved the company because the island of [[Bombay]] had, under the marriage treaty, been ceded by Portugal to England, and it lay within the company's territories. The court of directors in March 1661 resolved to restore their trade in the [[East Indies]], and appointed, on 19 March 1662, Sir George Oxenden to the post of president and chief director of all their affairs at [[Surat]], and all other their factories in the north parts of India, from [[Ceylon]] to the [[Red Sea]]. A

Oxenden found on his arrival in India that the company's trade was limited to the presidencies of Surat and [[Fort St. George]], and to the factory at [[Bantam (city)|Bantam]]. The king's troops were coming from England to keep down private trade. Sir George Oxenden was instructed to assist them, and to abstain from embroiling the company with foreign powers. The [[States-General of the Netherlands|States-General]] of the [[Dutch Republic]] were contesting the supremacy of the sea in Asia; English troops arrived, but were unable to obtain the immediate cession of Bombay, and Sir George Oxenden was prevented from assisting them by increased complications. France joined the Dutch Republic in threatening the company's trade, while the [[Mughal Empire|Mogul]] chieftains showed themselves jealous of English predominance. [[Aurungzebe]], the Mogul emperor, looked for advantage from the superior naval powers.

==Battle of Surat==
[[Sir Abraham Shipman]], the commander of the royal troops, who had arrived in around September or October 1662, found himself powerless to take or hold Bombay. He therefore proposed to cede it to the company. Meanwhile, the government of [[Aceh|Achin]] offered the whole of the trade of that port to the company, in return for the company's aid against the Dutch. Both of these offers were under Oxenden's consideration when, in January 1664, Surat was suddenly attacked by a force of [[Maratha]]s, consisting of some four thousand horse under the command of [[Shivaji]]. The inhabitants fled. The governor shut himself up in the castle, while Oxenden and the company's servants fortified the English factory.

One Englishman named Anthony Smith, was captured by the [[Maratha]]s, and funds were demanded from him. Smith wrote an account of him witnessing Chhatrapati Shivaji ordering the cutting off of the heads and hands of those who concealed their wealth.<ref name="smith">[[Vincent Arthur Smith]] (1919), [https://archive.org/stream/oxfordhistoryofi00smituoft#page/434/mode/2up ''The Oxford History of India''], [[Oxford University Press]], page 435</ref> However, when Chhatrapati Shivaji understood that Smith was poor he was freed. When the [[Mughal Army]] finally approached on the fourth fateful day, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and his followers galloped southwards into the [[Deccan Plateau|Deccan]]. Hence he was declared the most respectful ruler.

Only the well organized British, led by Oxenden, and the [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]] survived the onslaught, but the city itself never recovered.{{clarify|date=October 2014}}

Oxenden and his party defended themselves successfully but Chhatrapati Shivaji took away an immense booty. Oxenden received the gratitude of [[Aurangzeb]], and an extension of the privileges of trade to the English. Aurangzeb granted the English an exemption from the payment of customs for one year.

==Governor and commander-in-chief of Bombay==
In March 1667, Charles II ceded Bombay to the East India Company, and they commissioned Oxenden to take possession of the island of Bombay. In August of that year the court of directors appointed him governor and commander-in-chief of Bombay, with power to nominate a deputy-governor to reside on the island, but he was placed under the control of the president and council of Surat. On 21 September 1667 the island was formally ceded by the royal troops to the new governor. The English officers and privates there were invited to enter the company's service, and thus the first military establishment of the East India Company at Bombay was created. On 14 July 1669 Oxenden died at Surat, and the company erected a monument over Sir George's grave there.
[[File:Tombs of the Early English Settlers, Surat (9185928036).jpg|thumb|Tomb of Sir George Oxenden and his brother Christopher Oxenden in the English Cemetery at Surat, 1855]]

His nephew, [[Sir Henry Oxenden, 3rd Baronet]] (d. 1709), who was for a short time deputy-governor of Bombay, was second son of George Oxenden's elder brother Henry, who was knighted on 9 June 1660, was M.P. for Sandwich, and was created a baronet on 8 May 1678. The latter's third son was [[George Oxenden (lawyer)|George Oxenden]] the civil lawyer.

==See also==
*[[Battle of Surat]]

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{{S-gov}}
{{succession box| title=[[List of governors of Bombay|Governor of Bombay]] | years=23 September 1668 – 14 July 1669 | before= None (office created) | after=[[Gerald Aungier]]}}
{{S-end}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{DNB|wstitle=Oxenden, George (1620-1669)}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oxenden}}
[[Category:People from Maharashtra]]
[[Category:Governors of Bombay]]
[[Category:1620 births]]
[[Category:1669 deaths]]

George Oxenden (governor) - Revision history

imported>Tom.Reding: +{{Authority control}} (4 IDs from Wikidata), WP:GenFixes on